BlivetWidget
Explorer
No inherent class feature of the wizard keys off Arcana proficiency as far as I'm aware. There also seems to be a little confusion around a D&D wizard vs one specific stereotype of the D&D wizard.
Copying spell scrolls is the only feature that explicitly relies on it. Other than that, it's just expectations.
You've hit the nail on the head that it comes down to disagreement over what the wizard is. But the original post is about 5e, and I feel like 5e is fairly clear. A few bits about the wizard class from the phb without copying too much:
"the expertise attained after years of apprenticeship and countless hours of study..."
"Scholars of the Arcane..."
"As a student of arcane magic..."
"you learn your wizard spells through dedicated study and memorization..."
"the arcane research you conduct on your own, as well as intellectual breakthroughs you have had about the nature of the multiverse."
And from xge: "Wizardry requires understanding. The knowledge of how and why magic works."
That all pretty clearly reads like Arcana to me.
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